GOP Maintains Firm Grip on Legislature in West Va Primaries

By JOHN RABY, Related Press

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia voters did nothing to dramatically alter the make-up of the state legislature on Tuesday in major election contests that appeared sure to go away Republican supermajorities in each chambers intact.

Some West Virginia incumbent Republican state senators received their respective primaries Tuesday evening. Wooden County Republican Sen. Mike Azinger earned an in depth win in his major over Delegate John Kelly, Majority Chief Tom Takubo of Kanawha County simply defeated a GOP challenger whereas incumbent Mark Maynard of Wayne County received his three-way GOP major.

Former Democratic Sen. Mike Oliverio of Monongalia County, now a Republican, and Delegate Barbara Evans Fleischauer will meet within the fall for a thirteenth District Senate seat after every defeated major challengers.

Different Senate races remained undecided, together with former U.S. Legal professional Mike Stuart within the seventh District GOP major towards Chad McCormick of Yawkey; Raleigh County Republican Rollan Roberts towards Delegate Mick Bates; and Owens Brown, the primary Black man within the Senate, towards former Delegate Randy Schwartzmiller in a Northern Panhandle district.

One other race with a slender vote margin unfolded in a district spanning 5 counties and concerned former Democratic Delegate Mark Hunt, ex-GOP Delegate Joshua Higginbotham and Mark Mitchem. A fourth GOP candidate, Andrea Garrett Kiessling, was disqualified from working after a profitable problem to her residency. The winner will go on to November to face Democrat Richard Lindsay, who ran unopposed Tuesday.

Senate Minority Chief Stephen Baldwin was unopposed in his Democratic major and can meet one other church pastor, Republican Vince Deeds, in November. Deeds defeated two others in his GOP major in a five-county district in southern West Virginia.

Republicans outnumber Democrats 78-22 within the Home, 23-11 within the state Senate and want to add to their supermajority this fall. There have been no Democratic candidates in six of the 17 state Senate primaries and 27 of the 100 Home of Delegates races. General, Democrats had contested races in simply two Senate primaries and 16 Home primaries.

4 senators, together with three Democrats, didn’t search reelection and eight others had been unopposed within the major. Greater than half of the Home ran unopposed whereas 15 incumbents, together with 10 Republicans, didn’t search reelection.

All Home of Delegates candidates ran in single-member districts due to a 2018 restructuring. Beforehand, some districts had a number of delegates. Due to redistricting, some incumbent lawmakers confronted off within the major of their new districts.

In a Democratic major involving two incumbents, Delegates Ric Griffith and Chad Lovejoy had been locked in a decent race of their Huntington-area district, as was Roane County incumbent Riley Keaton towards Republican challenger Martin Atkinson.

Dr. Sydnee Smirl McElroy, who’s a household doctor and famend podcaster, defeated Marshall College freshman Kate White of their Democratic major in a district that features components of the Huntington space. McElroy will tackle one other physician, Matthew Rohrbach, in November. Rohrach was unopposed in his GOP major.

In one other shut race, Wooden County Republican incumbent Roger Conley was battling challenger Bob Fehrenbacher. Fehrenbacher admitted he was not a registered Republican when he filed his candidacy papers, calling it a easy oversight. He modified his registration to the GOP after the error was identified and ignored calls from the state Republican Celebration to discontinue his marketing campaign.

Two incumbent delegates with major opposition, Democrat Kayla Younger and Republican Larry Pack, additionally had been in races too near name.

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